State attorneys are warning Florida television stations that broadcasters could be committing crimes by airing campaign ads about a grand jury’s investigation into Hope Florida. Thirteenth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Suzy Lopez sent letters to several television stations around Tampa Bay on Friday, the same day the Republican Party of Florida filed a lawsuit over the ads. “I understand ...

Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez is among the lawyers who sent letters to TV stations warning them against airing political ads referencing a leaked Hope Florida grand jury report.

Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

State attorneys are warning Florida television stations that broadcasters could be committing crimes by airing campaign ads about a grand jury’s investigation into Hope Florida.

Thirteenth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Suzy Lopez sent letters to several television stations around Tampa Bay on Friday, the same day the Republican Party of Florida filed a lawsuit over the ads.

“I understand that your station intends to broadcast a political advertisement sponsored by the Florida Democratic Party concerning the Hope Florida investigation and the Leon County grand jury presentment,” Lopez wrote in an email obtained via a records request. “I am writing to ensure that you are fully aware of the potential criminal consequences of doing so.”

The letters were sent to WTVT-Ch. 13, Spectrum Bay News 9, Telemundo and WTSP-Ch. 10, among other local stations.

Lopez referenced a 1st District Court of Appeals decision this month to expunge a grand jury report related to Hope Florida. Judge Lance Neff, appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March, wrote in a majority opinion that the administration didn’t misappropriate funds when it directed $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to the Hope Florida Foundation.

The grand jury had described a “sophisticated scheme” involving officials within the DeSantis administration that routed money through the foundation to a political committee fighting a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana.

Neff, the appeals court judge, also determined that Tallahassee-area State Attorney Jack Campbell mishandled sensitive grand jury material by distributing the legally protected report too widely.

Neff cited the confidentiality breach as well as the grand jury accusing people of criminal behavior without an indictment as reasons to expunge the report.

Lopez’s letter focuses on a law that says grand jury proceedings are supposed to be kept secret. The leak of the report earlier this year to CBS Miami does not change the requirements of the law, she wrote.

A violation is a first-degree misdemeanor, Lopez wrote, and may result in criminal contempt of court.

“Whether to proceed is your decision, but you do so at your own legal risk,” she wrote.

A spokesperson for Lopez said in an email to the Times that the office sent the letter to make sure television stations could protect themselves if necessary.

“Grand jury confidentiality statutes exist to protect one of the most critical processes in our criminal justice system,” the office said in a statement.

State Attorney Brian Haas of the 10th Judicial Circuit in Hardee, Highlands and Polk counties sent an identical letter to TV stations in his area on the same day, a record shows.

Haas did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

Before the state attorneys weighed in, they heard from the Republican Party of Florida, records show. On the same day of their emails, Ben Gibson, counsel for the party, included Lopez, Haas and several other state attorneys in a message he sent to broadcasters across the state.

Gibson referenced the appeals court decision penned by Neff and warned the stations about the law protecting grand jury information.

The email cites text taken from the Democratic Party of Florida’s ad that says “a leaked grand jury report found taxpayer money was quietly moved into a dark money political committee that James Uthmeier controlled, not to Florida families.”

Uthmeier, formerly the governor’s chief of staff, was appointed by DeSantis to be the state’s attorney general and is running to keep his seat this year. Uthmeier chaired Keep Florida Clean, a political committee that fought against legalizing recreational marijuana.

Gibson was part of Uthmeier’s transition team in 2025.

On Friday, the same day of the Republican Party’s lawsuit and the state attorneys’ letters to TV stations, a group of people named in the Hope Florida grand jury report also filed a request with the 1st District Court of Appeal.

Their emergency motion is not available because of confidentiality laws, but it sought to “prohibit illegal publication” of the expunged presentment. It was filed to the same court docket where Neff released his opinion.

The court rejected the emergency motion on the same day it was filed. That order is also not available.

The Republican Party’s lawsuit names gubernatorial candidate David Jolly and other prominent Democrats bidding for state office, including Jose Javier Rodriguez, who is running against Uthmeier. Florida Democratic Party leaders have defended the ad and said they’re not taking it down.

Bobby Block, executive director of the nonprofit First Amendment Foundation, said the Republican Party of Florida’s attack on the political advertisements “absolutely” intrudes on the First Amendment.

Block said while the appellate court may have ordered the grand jury report expunged, media reports about the material still exist.

“So the question is, can the Democratic Party make reference to something that’s already out there in the public?” Block said. “I think that the court is going to find that it can.”